Yakutat to Petersburg-2

July 11th and day 2 of our big adventure.

We woke to typical coastal weather (rain), ate breakfast, then since we didn’t want to repack the cake in the airplane we had cake for breakfast. The kids didn’t complain😆. We packed up the airplane, wrote in the logbook, then took off heading to Petersburg. After taking off we flew the coast and started spotting bears left and right. Flying over the Lost Coast ( I’m told it’s called this because of all the bad weather it has) we saw over 30 bears, and that’s a conservative number. They were everywhere!

When my family moved to Alaska in 2000 we took the ferry up from Bellingham and stopped at Petersburg. I remember buying a garnet from local kiddos who had mined them from the island, but besides that I don’t have any memories of our time there. Woodsen also stopped in to Petersburg on the ferry, and flew to the airport on flights, but neither of us had explored the town or island before.

Before we left I had told my friend Shannon about our trip to Wisconsin and had mentioned our plans to stop in Southeast . We were hoping to stop in Petersburg since fuel prices were lowest there, Shannon mentioned her in-laws lived in Petersburg and might be up for hosting us if we needed. Right before we left I reached out to her to see if in fact her family would be up for having a family of six crash in on them, she replied that her in-laws happened to be currently sitting in her living room visiting them and their brand new baby and that her in-laws would be happy to host us.

She put me in contact with her Mother-in-law Debbie and the same day Woodsen and the kids were able to stop by and meet Debbie and her husband Eldon. Later I realized I had already met Debbie at a women’s morning prayer a few months prior.

So off we went to visit our new friends in Petersburg.

As we flew south we turned in to Pelican Straits and enjoyed the flight over lush rainforest and tidal plains. We bucked a head wind the whole way turning the planned 2.5 hr flight into 3 hrs. Many snacks were eaten, we heard I’m bored about a hundred times, had to give a diaper to an older kiddo after many complaints of having to pee (this caused much giggling and laughing as would be expected), and we finished the flight with another kiddo loosing their lunch and then some. Typical flight for our family at this stage.

We landed and were greated by Debbie and Eldon, seeing a familiar face after a long flight is pretty much the best, especially when you land somewhere new.

We ate a quick lunch then headed out to the playground to let the kids get out some pent up energy.

Sandy Beach provided not just a beach but a playground, berry picking, wild dear sightings, and boardwalks through the forest. Hard not to be happy in such an Alaskan Wonderland.

We finished the day off with a homemade lasagna dinner and Debbie reading books to the kiddos. Debbie and Eldon’s hospitality was so over the top it was easy to feel like family. They welcomed us to stay as long as we wanted, so we decided to stay two nights to explore the island and give the kids a break from the long flights. We always tell people to be careful what they offer, because we might just take them up on it😊.